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This listing contains all the analytical materials posted on the Russia Matters website. These include: RM Exclusives, commissioned by Russia Matters exclusively for this website; Recommended Reads, deemed particularly noteworthy by our editorial team; Partner Posts, originally published by our partners elsewhere; and Future Policy Leaders, pieces by promising young scholars and policy thinkers. Content can be filtered by genre and subject-specific criteria and is updated often. Gradually we will be adding older Recommended Reads and Partner Posts dating back as far as 2011.

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Build a Better Blob

Emma Ashford May 29, 2020
Recommended Reads

While some see the Blob as a bastion of foreign policy expertise, Ashford argues that portraying Washington's mainstream foreign policy community as "the only game in town" sets up a false choice between "hawkish liberal interventionism" and "Trumpian incompetence."

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In the Chaos of Syrian Geopolitics, Russia Remains Dominant

Kamal AlamMay 15, 2020
Recommended Reads

Recent talk of a rift between Moscow and Damascus may ignore Russia’s historic role in Syria.

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In Russia’s Shadow: China’s Rising Security Presence in Central Asia

Bradley Jardine and Edward LemonMay 01, 2020
Recommended Reads

Both Russia and China seek to expand their influence in Central Asia. Russia may have a strategic edge in the region for now, but the gap is closing.

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Russia’s Coronavirus Response Reveals Its Strengths and Weaknesses

Judy TwiggApril 11, 2020
Recommended Reads

Some of Russia’s inherent structural and demographic factors may help it cope. Others put it at a disadvantage.

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Why the Wealthy Fear Pandemics

Walter ScheidelApril 09, 2020
Recommended Reads

Scheidel argues that the coronavirus pandemic could “prompt redistributive reforms akin to those triggered by the Great Depression and World War II, unless entrenched interests prove too powerful to overcome.”

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Could the Coronavirus Destabilize Russia?

Nikolas K. GvosdevApril 06, 2020
Recommended Reads

There is a very real fear that the virus will overwhelm a brittle and underfunded health system. Combined with an economic shock, that could shake up the Russian political system.

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Piketty on Eurasia

Ivan U. KlyszczMarch 10, 2020
Recommended Reads

Every society in history has justified inequality. In today’s Russia the ideological framework was adopted in a hurry, argues the famed economist.

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The Problem With Fearmongering About Russian Electoral Interference

Joseph Haker and Andrew PaulFebruary 24, 2020
Recommended Reads

Blaming outsiders distracts attention from the very real domestic problems that make "disinformation" campaigns coherent in the first place.

Hale and Kamenchuk state that "congressional Republicans, in pressing forward with a story that conveniently shifts critical attention from Kremlin interference in elections to the activities of Putin’s enemies in Ukraine, are not veering very far from their base."

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NATO Expansion and the Great Unraveling of Arms Control

Michael KreponFebruary 03, 2020
Recommended Reads

The seeds that led to the Great Unraveling of conventional and nuclear arms control were planted during the first Clinton administration—it just wasn’t apparent at the time.

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A Demographic Trap and Low Growth Are Putin’s Biggest Challenges

John DizardJanuary 17, 2020
Recommended Reads

Despite Western expectations of reports of doom and gloom from Russia, the country is in fact adopting expansionary economic and social policies that appear to be financially sustainable.

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Groupthink Resurgent

George BeebeDecember 22, 2019
Recommended Reads

As our debacles in Vietnam and Iraq demonstrate, expert consensus is not always a recipe for success. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that American policy toward Ukraine has also been steeped in illusions.